Badaga – a minor language of South India

Minor Languages of South India

– Dr.R.K.Haldorai

According to Dr.Caldwell, the well known Dravidian linguist, the two minor languages of the South India, Toda and Kota are uncultivated languages. He included the minor languages, Tulu and Kodagu into cultivated group. He mentioned very little about the Badaga language which is also a remarkable minor language of South India. Besides these languages Kurumba, Irula, Kasaba etc., are the minor languages spoken in South India. However, among these languages Tulu, Kodagu, and Badaga are the languages which have more number of speakers. The rest tend to be spoken by rather small group (in almost all the cases less than ten thousand speakers) of tribes often in isolated areas.

Tulu, Kodagu and Badaga are non tribal languages but not literary. These three languages are also ancient languages of South India and important members of the Dravidian group of languages. Including these three all the minor languages of south India have no scripts of their own.

Tulu is spoken in the region called Tulu Nadu lying on the west coast of South India, comprising the major sector of the district of South Kannara situated in the Karnataka State and the people whose mother tongue is Tulu are called Tuluvas. Kodagu is spoken in the hilly region of Kodagu district of Karnataka state and the people whose mother tongue is Kodagu are called Kodagas or Kodavas. Badaga is spoken in the hilly Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu and the people whose mother tongue is Badaga are called Badagas.

Badagas identify their living place, Nilgiris district as “naakku betta” i.e. (surrounded by) four hills, these groups are identified with their respective mother tongues. Speakers of these minor languages are seen in urban centers in South India. Sizeable speakers of these languages have migrated to the nearby places, especially cites of South India.

These languages themselves are interesting to study and the study of such languages is also important from the point of view of the culture, habits and the social attitudes. It is a matter of regret to note that most the speakers of minor languages do not know much about their own languages. Of course, their ability to talk is unquestionable. The need of the hour is, we should devise a mechanism that can induce these speakers to know about their own languages. These people feel that their languages are poor versions, as they have no written forms.

If there is a priority between written and spoken language, it is the spoken form which comes first and not the written form of language. It is to be kept in mind that spoken language precedes the written language historically. The written languages were once vogue in spoken forms only. Even the speakers of a written language learn to speak long before they learn to write. Linguists made it clear that unlettered language is no way inferior to any lettered language. The speakers of these languages should know that their language has still not attained the written form because of lack of their own enthusiasm.

Fortunately, these languages (Tulu, Kodagu and Badaga) are best described by linguists and others. Now, linguists are able to cope up with any language in the world, whether or not it has ever been written down. Indeed, this is one of the most beneficial aspects of modern linguistics. Therefore, it is wise to utilize the service of these scholars for the development of their own languages.

Most of the speakers of the minor languages are bilingual. Besides their home language, they speak the local official language pretty well. The official language of Tulu and Kodagu speakers is Kannada and Tamil is the official language of Badagas. Some time these people identify themselves with the speakers of official language, especially during meeting with outsiders. However, there is hardly any chance of them conversing in other language with their own men.

Kodagu speakers are surrounded by Kannada, a literary language and Tulu is surrounded by two major literary languages viz. Kannada and Malayalam. But the peculiarity is seen with the Badaga speakers, they are surrounded by three major literary languages viz. Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. Their habitation, the Nilgiris is situated in the place where these three languages are meeting. Fortunately, the official languages of these groups belong to the family of language (Dravidian) which their own languages belong. Hence, these people learn the official language with ease.

Most of the people think that spoken language has no grammar and they restrict grammar for the written language. But from the linguistics point of view, spoken language certainly has a grammar. It is to be noted that the foreign and Indian scholars produced good descriptive grammar of these languages and they have translates some of their songs, folk-stories, ballads, proverbs etc. Most of the scholars use Roman script with diacritical marks wherever found necessary for writing these languages. The modern linguistics devices alphabets for languages. In fact, it appears as a pretty good aid in combating illiteracy.

To our dismay, these activities are helping to the scholars and others as reference materials, but not properly utilized by the speakers of these languages. In many cases, the speakers of these languages do not know about these studies and its importance. However, it is well and good when these people evince interest in utilizing these studies.

More or less all these three languages are highly developed with rich vocabularies. Among these languages, Tulu is more refined and it is capable of expressing the most subtle shades of meaning in appropriate terms. The antiquity of Tulu goes back to the Sangam age of Tamil literature. Tulu has produced a good many number of dictionaries. Some books have been printed in Kannada script. In Kodagu too, there is some activity of writing by adopting the Kannada script. But in the case of Badaga, it is a matter of regret to note that almost there is no activity of writing so far. Unlike Tulu and Kodagu, Badaga speakers rarely use to write their mother tongue. Mostly they use Tamil for external connection.

For a longer period Badags was maintained under ambiguous status between a language and a dialect. Badaga was relegated by few scholars to the position of dialect of Kannada, a dominant literary language in the vicinity. The multi-lingual Nilgiri hills fascinated many eminent scholars. But due to the relegation to the position of a dialect might have left the Badaga language in lurch as the other languages like Toda Kota caught attention of many linguistic and anthropological scholars. Somehow, of late the Badaga is studied by international acclaimed scholars. At the same time few indigenous scholars too studied Badaga language and produced few reference materials.

In fact, Badaga is an independent language with antiquity matching if not surpassing the other literary languages. Earlier scholars expressed their views superficially on Badaga language with their little collected materials. However during the recent past, especially during the closing decades of 20th century scholars studied the Badaga language thoroughly and exposed its status as independent language.

Even a cursory study of the vocabularies of these languages will tell us that these languages have been languages of highly civilized communities from the earliest time. Kodagu and Badaga languages have a small number of Sanskrit words comparing with Tulu. The primitive indigenous words can present a vivid picture of the simple life of these ancient people. In fact, these languages preserved more of their archaic features and intensive study of them will certainly clarify several issues in their linguistic pre-history.

The importance of the study of non-literary language cannot be minimized. There is a vast amount of literature seen in Tulu and Kodagu. All these minor languages have got traditional oral literature which has to be collected and studied. In fact, the importance of the oral literature is great. Collection of folklore and the folk songs is an urgent task. The rapidly changing scenario will engulf all these things without leaving any trace if they are not documented in time.

The study of minor languages of the South India has spanned a period of nearly two centuries. But what has been done is meager and much remains to be done. Mostly missionaries and foreign scholars had written grammars and associated materials. Dravidian linguists, mostly university scholars collected vocabularies and other linguistic materials and they paved the way for writing down these languages. Among these minor languages only Badaga has to adopt a script to elevate its position as a lettered one. Good many Badaga dramas and songs were written in Tamil script during the last few decades. With this one can assume that attempt to make Badaga as a lettered language is already begun and resuming that will make it as a literary language.

Karu Harachodhu

Karu Harachodhu

In his book, THE GOLDEN BOUGH – A STUDY IN MAGIC AND RELIGION (1922) Sir James George Fraser (1854 – 1941) mentioned the following :-
Among the Badagas of the Neilgherry Hills in Southern India, when a death has taken place, the sins of the deceased are laid upon a buffalo calf.For this purpose the people gather round the corpse and carry it outside of the village. There an elder of the tribe, standing at the head of the corpse, recites or chants [known as - "KARU HARUCHODU"] a long list of sins such as any Badaga may commit, and the people repeat the last word of each line after him.

Badaga Dance

Badaga dance is all about grace and style. It is a wonderful sight when a group of ladies dance together. During the funeral, the ladies of the parental village [hatti] of the deceased woman, dance going around the cot [kattalu] to the music provided by the 'host' hatti musicians.
Badaga Dance

Wg Cdr Bellie Jayaprakash, the 'All-in-One' of this site. Started as a hobby but now an obsession.

Even when I was down with poverty and sat at the front court yard,
Even when the near and dear ones despised and deserted,
My mother who gave birth, cared for and brought me up,
Did not blame me and did not reject me- her son, as bad

Even when I toiled as a Cooli with a bent back,
Even when I sat down with my looks dulled and dirty,
Even when I wore patched up old clothes,
My mother never said that I was down ; never rejected me as poor!

Even when I entered the stables and cleaned the dung,
Even when I sat on the rock and tendered the cows,
Even when I lifted loads to earn so as to suppress the hunger,
My mother never found any fault ; never scolded me as ignorant.

Athikkodhu & Karu Harachodhu

The beauty about Badaga community is not only the unique customs specific to the community but the steadfast belief with which atleast some of them are followed by Badagas. One of them is the loud chanting of ‘Athikkodhu – EAY AH HOW – on certain but specific occasions. It is said that in earlier days [hundreds of years back], when the Badaga villages [hattis] were separated by thick jungle forests , 'athikkindu Hoppadhu ' - traversing the forest with loud athikkodhu chant - kept the wild animals away.

Three occasions, when this loud chanting takes place, come to mind immediately,
1)During “Hethay Habba’ – both when from every village the devotees go to Hethay temples at Beragani and Peddhuva [as well as when the Hethay deity from Hethai Gudi is taken to ‘Madi Halla -river’ for change into new dress once a year].Also, and whenever a hatti temple deity is taken on procession during habbas in hattis],
2) During weddings when the bride and groom are brought to the ‘Madhuvay Mane – wedding house' and the newly weds are taken to the temple and
3) On funerals when the widow is brought for ‘olay Kattodhu’ and the ‘akki eththuva ‘ procession starts from the ‘dhodda Mane’ to ‘saavu hanay ‘ where the corpse/body is kept before being taken for burial.

This loud ‘chanting /cry’ is made from the bottom of the stomach by a few leading the procession and repeated by the rest following them.

I have given the ‘live’ recordings of this unique chanting (recorded during a wedding [the band playing in the background] at Thambatty

More than 572,000 hits…

That is a lot of hits for a website [weblog] on BADAGA that is focused on a small community of the Blue Mountains - the Nilgiris, in the southern part of India. Is it due to...

the urge to know the unknown about ourselves....

to sift the truth from fiction....the satisfaction that we have a very unique history.....the mystery about the mistaken migration.....the traditions that are still steadfastly followed.....the great language that has survived for centuries without a script...

The simple fact that this site's motto of 'Proud to be a Badaga ; Proud to be an Indian' has become an accepted norm...

You all, my dear friends, have made me bow my head in gratitude.

Proud to be an Indian and proud to be a Badaga, indeed.

Hope to say - 'thanks a million' soon...

Wg Cdr Bellie Jayaprakash, is the 'All-in-One' of this site. He says that he started this site as a hobby but now it has become an obsession.This website crossed the milestone of 100,000 visitors on 8-3-2010, 150,000 visitors on 20-4-2011, 200,000 visitors on 6-4-2012 , 250,000 on 22-1-2013, 300,000 hits on 6-1-2014, 350,000 on 6-1-15 and 400,000 on 13 -11-2015550000 hits on 1 Jan 2018. Feel humbled but proud

Golden Voice of Kerban Bella Gowder

Kerban Bella Gowder, a great Badaga Singer

Badaga Songs

Listen to these Badaga melodies as you browse

Dance Numbers Sad Songs

Letter

Thomas Chandy (thomaschandy@gmail.com) writes:-
"This is my first visit to this site and was surprised to know how ignorant I have been about the Badaga community. All that I have read makes me hang my head in shame for I have been growing up in the Nilgiris, among the Badagas and I was so ignorant about their origin,culture and so on. This write up is very informative and useful and may the Badaga community grow and spread through the whole world and prosper".

"Thank you Thomas. I am humbled at your kind words. May I hope that the Badagas will live up to your hopes, and thank you once again on behalf of the Badaga community – Wg Cdr JP"

Letter

Anand Ramachandran(Muttinadu) writes :This is the the first time I am visiting this site.... It took 5 hours to go through this site, you have done a fantastic job. Its just like a bible for our next generation. Thanks for your commitment!

Badaga

From the heart

Do you feel very strongly about any issue concerning Badaga Community? Have the urge to pour your heart out ? Feel free to express yourself without any inhibition and send them tobjaypee@gmail.com

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Save the TIGER

Tiger is HULI in Badaga Lanuage

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Bhuvaneshwari R writes :- This website is one of the best I have seen. Didn’t think I would find so much detail about our culture.
The history of origin of Badagas is quite fascinating. Photos are also really great.
Really good to see someone do an effort to spread awareness.Thank you…
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Here are some great Hethey songs!

Song uploaded in Soundcloud by Suresh M

Needs & Greeds

Here's a question that was posed to the Dalai Lama:

"What thing about humanity surprises you the most?"

His answer is : "MAN - Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he doesn't enjoy the present,

And as a result he doesn't live in the present or the future. And he lives as if he's never going to die and then he dies having never really lived".

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600,000 hits and counting

That is a lot of hits for a website [weblog] on BADAGA that is focused on a small community of the Blue Mountains - the Nilgiris, in the southern part of India. Is it due to...

the urge to know the unknown about ourselves....

to sift the truth from fiction....the satisfaction that we have a very unique history.....the mystery about the mistaken migration.....the traditions that are still steadfastly followed.....the great language that has survived for centuries without a script...

The simple fact that this site's motto of 'Proud to be a Badaga ; Proud to be an Indian' has become an accepted norm...

You all, my dear friends, have made me bow my head in gratitude.

Proud to be an Indian and proud to be a Badaga, indeed.

Hope to say - 'thanks a million' soon...

Wg Cdr Bellie Jayaprakash, is the 'All-in-One' of this site. He says that he started this site as a hobby but now it has become an obsession.This website crossed the milestone of 100,000 visitors on 8-3-2010, 150,000 visitors on 20-4-2011, 200,000 visitors on 6-4-2012 , 250,000 on 22-1-2013, 300,000 hits on 6-1-2014, 350,000 on 6-1-15 and 400,000 on 13 -11-2015550000 hits on 1 Jan 2018.600000 hits on Sep 2018 Feel humbled but proud